Foreign Policy Column: Pollard a Judas who wants Money

Harsh language in column that says Israel is preparing hero's welcome for Pollard for betraying the United States.

Gil Ronen, 18/04/13 19:55

Jonathan Pollard

Israel news photo: Jonathanpollard.org

A column laced with apparent anti-Semitic allusions has appeared in Foreign Policy, a magazine owned by the Washington Post Company. Written by Noel Koch, it calls not to release Jonathan Pollard from prison.

Koch cites two reasons for not releasing Pollard. First, he says, "the Israelis have never told us who his co-conspirators were." Secondly, "the Israelis have never told us how much of the information they obtained was traded to nations hostile to the United States."

"U.S. intelligence personnel have long known that Pollard didn't act alone," he writes, "and that there were other, still unidentified (or at least unprosecuted), traitors to America involved in this undertaking. Who identified for Pollard the specific documents he was to pull out of the computers? Israel hasn't told us."

Koch also claims that it is "known" that the information Israel bought from Pollard "was exchanged with other national agencies to the detriment of U.S. interests."

"Some of the damage to the United States is known," he explains. "Some may not be. In any case, Israel has never given the United States a complete accounting of what was stolen (to be sure, Pollard himself doesn't know) and what was passed to enemies of the United States."

At this point, Koch appears to opt for Jew-baiting, writing that "Jonathan Pollard got what he wanted: money, jewelry, and paid trips in exchange for his treachery; he got what he deserved: life in prison. Unlike Judas, who had the grace to hang himself in shame, he lives in the hope that his purchasers will spring him so he can enjoy the apartment set aside for him, the money they have been banking for him, and the hero's welcome they have promised him for betraying the United States."

Koch's biographical information at the bottom of the column says that he served in the U.S. Department of Defense from 1981 to 1986.

A long list of U.S. officials and influential figures, past and present, have come out in favor of releasing Jonathan Pollard, who has been in jail for close to 28 years and is in flagging health. There is no other known case in which a person convicted in the U.S. of espionage for a friendly country has served such a long sentence.